I'm writing this Friday morning sitting in gate B1 of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, waiting for a flight that will take me to Austin. While I'm in town I will be spending a lot of time hatching plans with Brandon Hodge, one of my favorite Pathfinder authors. Brandon is the mad genius who brought us the fan-favorite Rasputin Must Die! in the fifth volume of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path.
When we came up with the idea of sending the Adventure Path heroes to a variety of exotic worlds via the magic of Baba Yaga's Hut, it was probably inevitable that one of us would come up with the idea of using the Mother of Witches' real home—Russia. You know, on Earth.
Mention Russia in a room of nerds like us, and it's only a matter of time before someone brings up Rasputin. We all got so excited about the idea of the player characters encountering Rasputin (and trying to kill him, of course), that we didn't ever really stop to consider whether it was a good or bad idea for the Pathfinder brand. We just knew it got our blood pumping, and that it was a way to inject an unexpected left turn into a line that had already seen more than 60 adventures.
We knew we were in love. It was too late to turn back, and we didn't want to turn back, anyway. But we knew that the idea would be controversial, and that most gamers would have their default set to "skeptical." Convincing folks to give it a try meant getting the right ideas, and getting the right ideas meant getting the right author.
We immediately thought of Brandon Hodge. In addition to having strong adventure design fundamentals and just being an all-around professional and affable guy, Brandon had already written killer adventures and articles for us that included a pervasive sense of grounding in real world facts and mythology. He was our guy.
The adventure came out. It was really, really popular—certainly the most talked-about adventure since Kingmaker.
Several months later we made the decision to produce a line of figures based off of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, I had to face the daunting prospect of including modern World War I era figures in the set. I did this with the full understanding that enjoying reading or even playing an unusual adventure is a one-time thing, but adding miniatures to your collection is forever.
A figure like a Lich or even something like the amazing Clockwork Reliquary might only come out once a campaign, but it isn't too difficult to imagine finding a use for it again down the road.
But a guy with a gun and a gas mask? How many uses are you going to get out of that?
So I knew I needed some modern figures in the Reign of Winter. I knew I couldn't include too many, as some folks are going to be very difficult to convince. So the ones we used had to be worth it.
They had to be awesome.
This week, I present the results of our efforts. For those of you looking for a way to stage an amazing run of one of the best adventures we've ever published, I hope you put these to use and appreciate these figures. For those who would prefer that we not have included them at all, I hope you appreciate them as at least attractive necessary evils.
Speaking of evil, here's Rasputin:
This is the man himself. Grigori Rasputin, the unkillable Russian mystic who serves as a major villain in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path. Although drawn from Earth history, there's not too much about this figure that defines it as "modern," so our boy Rasputin also easily doubles as a wizard or cleric in a smart coat. Rasputin is a Medium, rare miniature.
Here we have the Russian Soldier of World War I. Gas mask. Rifle. Hand grenade. The gas mask and long coat give the Russian Soldier a kind of otherworldly quality that makes them seem less out of place in a fantasy setting, but basically, they're Russians. The Russian Soldier is a Medium, common figure.
Bedecked in a gray coat and cool hat and wielding one major machine gun is the Russian Machine Gunner. This Medium figure is slated at the common rarity.
Last up today is Polkovnik Lavrenti, a dullahan soldier riding a nightmare. Check out the clear plastic effects on the horse and the heads dangling from the saddle. Creepy! You've got to look pretty hard to see the modern elements on this guy, so throw him down on the table in any campaign and watch players shudder in fear. Sweet. Polkovnik Lavrenti is a Large, rare figure.
And that's it for the explicitly modern figures in the set. We'll see you next week for more reveals. There are many more monsters to come!
Erik Mona
Publisher
